Believing and sharing misinformation, fact-checks, and accurate information on social media: The role of anxiety during COVID-19.
Anxiety
COVID-19
corrections
fact-check
misinformation
partisan motivated reasoning
social media
Journal
New media & society
ISSN: 1461-4448
Titre abrégé: New Media Soc
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101677185
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Jan 2023
Jan 2023
Historique:
entrez:
9
1
2023
pubmed:
10
1
2023
medline:
10
1
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The COVID-19 pandemic went hand in hand with what some have called a "(mis)infodemic" about the virus on social media. Drawing on partisan motivated reasoning and partisan selective sharing, this study examines the influence of political viewpoints, anxiety, and the interactions of the two on believing and willingness to share false, corrective, and accurate claims about COVID-19 on social media. A large-scale 2 (emotion: anxiety vs relaxation) × 2 (slant of news outlet: MSNBC vs Fox News) experimental design with 719 US participants shows that anxiety is a driving factor in belief in and willingness to share claims of any type. Especially for Republicans, a state of heightened anxiety leads them to believe and share more claims. Our findings expand research on partisan motivated reasoning and selective sharing in online settings, and enhance the understanding of how anxiety shapes individuals' processing of risk-related claims in issue contexts with high uncertainty.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36620434
doi: 10.1177/14614448211011451
pii: 10.1177_14614448211011451
pmc: PMC9805917
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
141-162Informations de copyright
© The Author(s) 2021.
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